WHEN COUNTRIES ARE SOLD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 22, 26 January 1935, Page 6 (Supplement)

WHEN COUNTRIES ARE SOLD.

Good and Bad Bargains in " Real Estate." * (By BERNARD BLAND. >

To many Britons tlio suggestion, made in a letter to the Prime Minister, Mr. Ramsay Macdonald, l>y Captain Arthur Evans, M.P., that Great Britain should settle the debt question with the United .States by ceding Bermuda to them in return for a "clean slate," is undoubtedly repugnant. They will shudder at the idea that we should betray our trust to such an extent as to deliver up a part of the Knipire, regarding such a transaction as "•payment in kind," with a vengeance.

But entering into the political aspect o* the case or offering any arguments for or against a deal of this description, it can be suggested that 110 loss of dignity need be feared in view of the fact that far greater portions of the world have changed hands in similar transactions. France has sold great territories; Russia, at the height of Czarist power and prosperity sold Alaska, Germany has made exchanges, and we, or rather the king that ruled us, parted with a valuable seaport to the French in a transaction considered as disgraceful as any that occurred in history. The United States lias in the past been a willing buyer of territory, and with her usual shrewdness she lias invariably done well out of the deal. Were we to sell Bermuda or any other portion of the Empire, there might be two satisfactions in the bargain—for the' States that they had made a wise " buy," for us that we had acquitted ourselves once and for all in honourable fashion of a debt and rid ourselves of a constant cause of friction between the nations. " The Louisiana Purchase." The greatest land purchase ever made was that known as the " Louisiana Purchase," whereby the United States obtained from France an area of land a million square miles in extent in what i* now the State of Florida and Louisiana. The States were pressing France to pay the claims of her merchants for spoliation by French cruisers during the Napoleonic Wars,' and though Napoleon had pledged himself to Spain aot to part with Louisiana, an agreement was come to —in a somewhat hole aiulcorner way, it must be said, whereby the great territory changed hands for (i 0,000,000 francs down and the wiping out of the merchants' claims to the tune of an additional 20,000,000 francs.

Part of the area thus bought was wilderness, but American industry transformed it into a land of prosperity, and in 1903 Louisiana was inhabited bv 15,000000 persons, and its taxable wealth was four times the purchase price. After the War of Independence, and the Civil War, this transaction is considered the greatest event in the history of the United State* and was commemorated by the Great Louisiana Exposition held at St. Louis in 1904.

A very good, stroke of business was also done by the United States wlien they bought Alaska from Russia. Alaska was being " peacefully penetrated" by American pioneers for many years before the purchase, and the irritation thus caused came to a head about 1807. This was got over by the striking of a bar-

gain, the United States buying the country for the remarkably small sum ol 7,200.000 dollars. Alaska was rich in timber and other staple products, and she proved herself an even greater bargain in 1900 when the great gold stampede started. In six years gold to the value of 32,000,000 dollars had been extracted from her soil. Britain's Poor Bargaining Although Florida became American as the result of what may be termed a filibustering campaign, it had previously been the subject, of a "trade transaction," for in 171).'5 it had been ceded to England bv Spain in exchange for Havana. Twenty years later, however, it reverted to Spain, and in fear of annexation by Britain, the Americans stepped in first, making the excuse that it had originally been intended to form part of the Louisiana purchase.

Britain has not figured very largely in the mart of territories, and it is almost proof of the fact that we are not the huckstering " nation of shopkeepers" that Napoleon termed us that we have mainly succeeded in making bad bargains.

For instance, Charles IT. raised the wind for the payment of debts by selling; Dunkirk to the French, thus parting with a valuable base on the Continent, and one that had cost thousands of English lives to hold. The excuse that we should only have lost it by seizure on the part of the French may or may not be true. Considering the state of the navv and the unreadiness of the country for war at that time it is likely enough to have been a good excuse, and it cannot be denied that to sell is better than to lose in war. We did not strike a particularly brilliant bargain when we parted with Heligoland to Germany in exchange for Zanzibar, having taken Heligoland from the Danes during the Napoleonic Wars. It must lie said however, that some Germans thought they had done equally badly. But there was a widespread feeling in Germany at that time against any holdings in Africa, a statesman saying that "it would be disastrous for Germany if she were made a present of the whole of Africa." The Wise Course. When portions of territory cannot be said to be of vital importance to one country, but are needed for the purposes of expansion by another, sale and purchase appear to be the course of wise statesmanship. As for Bermuda, it is no longer a vital necessity to our strategical position in the West Indies, and in the event of war with the United States could not successfully be defended by us. For such a reason the United States are considering yielding up the Philippine Islands, knowing that they could not be held, should war break out against Japan. In view of later history it can be said that Spain would have been wiser to seek a trade deal with America over the matter of Cuba. The sale of Cuba to the United States would have been a somewhat more profitable action than the war, which cost her a navy, countless lives and treasure, and resulted in the loss of the bone of contention after all.—(Copyright.)